They suffered writer's block, stressed over deadlines and agonized over plot and character. Now, after months of hard work, the Grade 6 and 7 students in Cheryl Angst's Language Arts class are published authors with books in their hands.
Could movie deals be far behind?
Who knows, but one thing's for certain: The 150 Minnekhada students who completed the NaNoWriMo Young Writer's Program this year could give fantasy fiction novelists like J.K. Rowling and Christopher Paolini a run for their money.
Their books have the look and feel of treasured children's classics and the stories are tales of heartbreak, loss and coming of age. Some are harrowing adventure tales featuring plucky heroes and heroines while others examine the struggles of growing up and fitting in.
Justine Straith's novel Kayda is about a Japanese girl's culture shock upon arriving in America and while Straith isn't ready to let others look at it yet - she's not crazy about criticism, but who is? - she's pretty happy about the results of all her hard work.
"It looked really good," she said of the thin book with the blue cover and the picture of a dog that recently arrived in the mail.
The books are the proof that even young writers can be challenged to finish a novel, says Angst, who got involved in the NaNoWiMo project two years ago and wrote alongside her students. At first, she said, the students were shocked to learn they would have to produce between 6,000 and 7,000 words in 30 days (depending on their grade) but, after several lessons, they got over their initial misgivings and wrote up a storm.
"It's scary but we prepared them," said Angst, who worked with co-teacher Christina Cameron on the project. "They maybe don't think they want to write but they like to tell stories. And then they walk away with tangible proof they can do something."
NaNoWriMo (ywp.nanowrimo.org/press#history) also provides lots of encouragement and motivation to help along the way. There are progress charts and supportive letters from adult novelists, and the students get a coupon for a free proof copy of their novel from createspace.com.
Still, there were challenges.
Victoria Bradley said she often got distracted and had trouble coming up with "fresh ideas" for her novel 8 People and their Destiny, which is about four children who face a mystery villain in another dimension.
Adrian Chen struggled with names for the characters in his book The Lost Father and settled on "Jeff Smith" for the boy who follows journal clues to track his missing father. "I read other books I could connect to," Chen said, noting J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings was his inspiration.
Coming up with names for her characters was also a challenge for Daisy Lee, who borrowed her brother's name for a character in her novel Memories about two best friends who are "free nobodies" until "one nobody wanted to rule the world."
Lee was afraid her brother would be mad, but "he thought it was cool," she said.
When they finished their novels, the students celebrated with a party, then they had to design the dust jacket and set the type. It was a challenge but the effort paid off this month, when the printed books were finally delivered.
"For me, the really powerful learning is that these kids believe in themselves," Angst said, "There are millions of adults who dream of writing a novel. These kids, they're 10 to 13 years old and they've done it."
dstrandberg@tricitynews.com
